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P-TECH in Katowice with a new partner

Katowice, 5 April, 2022 – Kyndryl, the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, joins as a partner in the international educational and workforce development program P-TECH, IBM inspired initiative that launched in Poland in 2019. Under the program, students of the Complex of Technical and Comprehensive Schools No. 2 in Katowice, after five years of education, will gain a high school diploma and the opportunity to obtain a market qualification, at the fifth level of the Polish Qualification Framework, in the field of Console Monitoring and Mainframe Intervention, which was created thanks to the cooperation with the Educational Research Institute, the content partner of P-TECH. All classes in this area will be taught by lecturers – experts from Kyndryl company. The Polish edition of the P-TECH program is supported by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the Ministry of Education and Science.


The primary goal of P-TECH is to support local communities by adequately preparing young people for STEM careers in any sector, relevant to the needs of the 21st century job market. As a multi-stakeholder educational initiative, the P-TECH program provides support for young people to develop scientific, technical, workplace and vocational skills. It is an example of the best use of a multi-stakeholder public-private partnership in which technical and general education students can also develop in a vocational environment.

Joining the project, students will participate in the daily work of their mentor (job shadowing), get to know the business environment from within the company, attend lectures and engage in paid internships. P-TECH does not require any change in the core curriculum. Partner companies in Katowice, i.e. IBM and Kyndryl at ZSTiO No. 2 in Katowice and Fujitsu Technology Solutions at Śląskie Techniczne Zakłady Naukowe in cooperation with the school’s teaching staff provide additional input or tools for already existing subjects and classes so as to equip students with specific skills needed in the labor market.

The last two years have clearly shown that we live in a dynamically changing environment, and it requires from us to be flexible enough to adapt to changes and to have the ability to predict the possible development directions. I will repeat what I said in 2019 when the pilot of P-TECH program was launched in Katowice: this program is a response to the growing economic demand for IT specialists, and broadly speaking, for people with digital competences. First of all, P-TECH supports us in educating young people who will be able to keep up with the changing labor market and get a stable employment. Secondly, P-TECH is a proof that foreign investors together with schools and local governments can successfully implement initiatives that prepare the youth for digital economy. Thank you for all your hard work and commitment! “- says Marcin Krupa, mayor of Katowice.

This August we will mark three years since we launched the first P-TECH in Poland with our first partners right here in Katowice. Since then, we have significantly managed to spread the idea of the need for technical education at all levels, including the launch of our IBM SkillsBuild program last year”- says Marcin Gajdzinski, Country General Manager, IBM Poland and Baltics.

I am very pleased that thanks to the signed agreement, our employees can continue their commitment to educating the youth of the ZSTiO no.2 in Katowice under the new Kyndryl brand, as they have done it for the last two years. At Kyndryl, we attach great importance to activities for the benefit of local communities, especially if it contributes to a better start of young people in the professional life, who may join the team of our employees in the future. Educating new adepts in various IT fields, including artificial intelligence, cloud, project management, etc., which we run as part of P-TECH, is important for our Center in Katowice, but it will also ensure stable work in IT and help the students to prepare for the jobs of the future . Such involvement of employees strengthens their sense of empowerment and gives the opportunity to test their knowledge and experience by transferring knowledge to young people.” – says Zbigniew Traczyk, Executive Director Kyndryl Customer Innovation Center, Poland.

P-TECH was co-established by IBM in the United States. The first school joined the program in 2011 in Brooklyn as a collaboration between the New York City Department of Education, The City University in New York and IBM. Since then, P-TECH has been implemented in more than 300 schools in 28 countries. Today, the program brings together approximately 600 partner companies and hundreds of universities. In Poland, IBM is also an Industry Partner for many of these initiatives.

Social and educational responsibility has always been a very important element of Fujitsu’s corporate culture. Here’s what the P-Tech Program Sponsors on behalf of Fujitsu have to say:

P-TECH is a valuable initiative aimed at helping educate young people and supporting them in building their own future. Lectures, observation practices and, moreover, the mentoring program offered by P-TECH will allow students not only to deepen their technical knowledge, but also to better understand the expectations of potential employers, or find out what interpersonal and communication skills are in demand and even desired on the labor market. ” – says Aleksandra Durzyńska-Prochowska, Managing Director of Poland GDC (Łódź and Katowice) and Member of the Management Board of Fujitsu Technology Solutions.

By supporting educational initiatives such as P-Tech, Fujitsu is making a contribution to society and the region. It is worth emphasizing that the P-TECH curriculum is created and implemented by our employees. On the part of the company, we have over 40 trainers involved who share with students what is best in Fujitsu – practical expert knowledge in the field of the latest IT technologies, such as: programming, cybersecurity, cloud solutions, artificial intelligence, project management and many others. It is a great educational value for us. The program, thanks to our employees’ contact with students, allows in small steps to reduce the barrier between the school and corporate environment, thanks to which the entry of a young person into the labor market may result in less shock. This is the main goal of P-TECH and we strive for it together. ” – says David John Deane, the first Business Development Director of Poland GDC, Representative of the Polish Management Board and Executive Sponsor of the P-TECH Program on behalf of Fujitsu in Łódź.

The P-TECH project creates conditions for various forms and methods of training students of Technical Secondary School No. 4 (ZSTiO Nr 2), it allows to take advantage of IBM employees’ resources in shaping the key competences of students in the perspective of employing them in the labor market in the IT industry. Joining a new partner – the company Kyndryl – is just another benefit and added value of this venture. For the school, it is an element of the differentiation strategy, which allows for effective adaptation of activities in response to the demand for shaping new staff for solutions based on modern technologies of global suppliers. Our students therefore have a unique chance for professional development and getting a job in international companies. ” – says Aldona Skubiszewska, director of the Complex of Technical and Comprehensive Schools No. 2 in Katowice (ZSTiO nr 2).

Another business partner in the P-Tech program is a signal confirming the growing interest in the program. Joining a new company will certainly influence its development. We are glad that an even larger group of IT specialists will share their experience with high school students. Thanks to this, the spectrum of knowledge and skills that can be acquired by students will increase, and thus their preparation for work in the IT profession will be at a higher level. It will certainly make it easier for students to enter the labor market after graduation, and on the other hand, employers will be able to count on more competent employees from the beginning of their employment.” – assesses Aneta Łosiewicz, director of the Silesian Technical Research Institutes in Katowice (ŚTZN).

We are pleased that the Educational Research Institute, which implements the Integrated Qualifications System in Poland, is a partner in this agreement. We have been arguing for a long time that education and the labour market must be closely connected, and knowledge must be combined with practice and experience. We know that by joining the P-TECH programme, students from Katowice schools can use partner laboratories, participate in internships and paid placements, as well as follow the daily work of their mentors and learn about the business environment from the inside. This is invaluable experience that will give future graduates a good start in the modern labour market .”- stresses Dr. Jakub Koper, Deputy Director of the Educational Research Institute.

There are already seven schools in Poland where P-TECH classes are conducted. Apart of the Complex of Technical and Comprehensive Schools No. 2 (ZSTiO nr 2) and Śląskie Techniczne Zakłady Naukowe from Katowice (ŚTZN), so far, the program has been joined by Zespół Szkół Elektronicznych in Radom, Bartłomiej Nowodworski High School from Kraków, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski Technical Schools in Rzeszów, Technikum nr 1 „Szkoła na Leśnej” in Wronki and Zespół Szkół Politechnicznych in Łódź.

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